Art Here, There and EverywhereArtist Kalle Hamm has made an environmental artwork project that intertwines with many of the ideas and objectives in “Art Here, There and Everywhere” – project. Art Here, There and Everywhere studies possibilities to perceive and understand different environments using multi sensuous art.
At the top of the sense pyramid
European eye-man, Asian ear-man, Native American nose-man, Australian tongue-man and African skin-man… This list, which already sounds racist, is a quote from a racial hierarchy list of the senses, created in the 19th century by natural historian Lorenz Oken. At the top of the pyramid is the European eye-man. This list gives us a notion of the mindset people had in the past of the emphasis on the senses in different cultures and the confrontation between “rational Europeans” and the “sensuous wild”.After Oken, western researchers continue to put eyesight at the top of the pyramid. Since the renaissance, western culture has continued to emphasize eyesight because of our society’s strong visual nature. Sense of smell and hearing have been put in the shade, but this is interesting because these senses were much more informative for the medieval man and research than for the modern human, who instead is accustomed to an odorless and noise filled world.
From sensation to another sensation
Senses do not work like machines. They are a part of a larger communication system. Instead of juxtaposing senses or putting them in order of precedence, it is interesting to consider which senses are activated and when? People live, move and transcend in different environments and visual sound-, temperature-, smell-, etc. states. Sometimes your sense of hearing awakes to a beautiful echoing of a Wind Kannel and sometimes your vision focuses on to a terrible or beautiful object in the scenery.Earlids open
Cultural norms, but also the ability, desire and sensitivity of the observer affect the attitude towards our environment and how we interpret it. According to sound-landscape researcher Noora Vikman, when people close their eyelids they slightly open their earlids at the same time. Familiarizing yourself with sound-landscapes and opening your earlids can be a difficult task for a modern human and may call for deliberate and painful efforts.Exciting sense list
Thought of Lorenz Okens sense list without any value hierarchy is exciting.I like to see Art Here, There and Everywhere -environmental art project as a work model that encourages students, teachers and the whole surrounding society to become sensitive and curious about the environment. In other words eye-, ear-, nose-, language-, AND tactile human beings.
Art Here, There and Everywhere brings up a question about the possibilities of art and its role as a part of the environment and everyday life. Does art have the power to stop us and make us see the environment from a different angle? Art Here, There and Everywhere invites artists and specialists from different fields to work with schoolchildren in its workshops. Community sense, art relations and multi sensibility are the pedagogical basis of the project.
Calling Eura
Calling Eura grasps the everyday life, memories and stories connected to the people in Eura. As a result, the stories come alive for everyone to see, experience and hear as hike, bicycle and car tours, spread around Eura. Stories collected by the pupils and places connected to them are hardly going to disappoint the eye-, ear-, nose-, language and tactile people who experience the artwork.Art Here, There and Everywhere is an environmental art-project made in cooperation with Pori Art Museum and Pori Department of Education, it started in the year 1999. It is one of the projects started by the Finnish National Board of Education and it is a part of the pilot-projects of national School and Culture cooperation (1998-2001) program, also known as KOKU. One of its aims was to develop new operation models and content for the cultural and art education in schools. In the year 2005, experiences and procedures learned from Art Here, There and Everywhere-project were transferred into a new working environment by expanding it to a province, in cooperation with Eura Muncipality. Calling Eura is a part of the environmental artwork-project Art Here, There and Everywhere and it is linked to the Pori Art Museum’s regional art museum activities.
Mirja Ramstedt-Salonen
Museum educator
Pori Art Museum
Literature:
Hannu Salmi: Onko tuoksuilla ja äänillä menneisyys? Aistiympäristön historia tutkimuskohteena. KULTTUURIHISTORIA - Johdatus tutkimukseen. Toimitus Kari Immonen ja Maarit Leskelä-Kärki. Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seura. Helsinki 2001,
Heikki Uimonen: Ääntä kohti. Ääniympäristön kuuntelu, muutos ja merkitys. Akateeminen väitöskirja. Tampereen yliopisto. Musiikintutkimuksen laitos. Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 1110. Tampere 2005.
TAIDETTA YMPÄRI JA ÄMPÄRI II. Porin taidemuseon ja Porin kaupungin koulutusviraston ympäristötaideprojekti. Toimitus Mirja Ramstedt-Salonen. Porin taidemuseon julkaisuja 71. TUTKA Porin taidemuseon tutkimuksia 2. Nykypaino Oy 2004.
- Translation in English Juha Köönikkä
